This course is intended as a first step for learners who seek to become producers of social science research. It is organized as an introduction to the design and execution of a research study. It introduces the key elements of a proposal for a research study, and explains the role of each. It reviews the major types of qualitative and quantitative data used in social science research, and then introduces some of the most important sources of existing data available freely or by application, worldwide and for China. The course offers an overview of basic principles in the design of surveys, including a brief introduction to sampling. Basic techniques for quantitative analysis are also introduced, along with a review of common challenges that arise in the interpretation of results. Professional and ethical issues that often arise in the conduct of research are also discussed. The course concludes with an introduction to the options for further study available to the interested student, and an overview of the key steps involved in selecting postgraduate programs and applying for admission. Learners who complete the course will be able to make an informed decision about whether to pursue advanced studies, and should be adequately prepared to write an application for postgraduate study that exhibits basic understanding of key aspects of social science research paradigms and methodologies.
Explore the big questions in social science and learn how you can be a producer of social science research.
Course Overview video: https://youtu.be/QuMOAlwhpvU
Part 1 should be completed before taking this course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-science-study-chinese-society

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From the lesson

Designing a Study

Welcome to Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society Part 2! Part 2 focuses on being a PRODUCER of Social Science Research. Take some time to review the course overview, assignments for this course and say hello in the discussion forum.

Taught By

Cameron Campbell

Professor of Social Science

Transcript

[MUSIC] Hi, welcome to part two of our course, social science approaches to the study of Chinese society. In part one, the goal was to make you an educated and informed consumer of social science research especially related to Chinese society. Here in part two, we're going to try to make you an educated producer of social science research by introducing the basic elements of the design of research studies. And here in lecture one, I'm going to talk about how we design a study. To introduce the basic steps involved in the design of a study, I'm going to be talking about the research proposal which normally lays out all of the steps, the parts that are going to be included in a research study, as well as some other parts that help motivate it and provide context for it. So, we'll begin by discussing one of the most important parts of a research proposal which is the aims in which we summarize what the study will do. The next part is typically the impact or the significance in which we try to explain why it is that this study should be conducted? Why are the results potentially important and useful? Then we'll talk about the background and the literature section which normally situates the study in the context of other studies on the same topic and reviews the broader literature. We'll talk about the section in which we introduce the Methodology of our plan study. The methods that were going to use to conduct the analysis and test our theories. And we'll talk about the section in which we describe the data that were going to analyze as we carry out to study. Overall, the goal of this lecture is to introduce you to how we design a research study. And we're going to do so by introducing the elements that typically make up a research proposal. A research proposal once again includes not only the elements of a design for a research study, but additional pieces such as the aims, the significance and the background that help provide motivation and context. I'll be sharing a lot of experience that I've had over the years both writing my own proposals, some of which work, some of which didn't. And reading proposals written by others. And in a course of those experiences, I've developed a lot of opinions about what should be in a proposal to help make it successful and maybe what can be left out and I look forward to sharing these experiences with you over the course of this lecture. [BLANK AUDIO]

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